President Barack Obama

In his weekly Saturday radio and Internet broadcast, President-elect Barack Obama pledged the most significant new investment in America’s infrastructure, including bridges and roads, since President Eisenhower built the modern Interstate highway system during the 1950. Obama also proposed other forms of infrastructure spending,, involving schools, housing and energy projects that will create large numbers of new jobs. Barack Obama’s ideas hearken back to the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt, who utilized government deficit spending to build new infrastructure as a means of reducing unemployment in the wake of the Great Depression.

Barack Obama announced his ideas the day after a jobs report was issued by the government, indicating that in November a record half million Americans lost their jobs. With the U.S. economy clearly in free-fall, the President-elect sought to inject hopeful news about the country’s future at a time of fear about further financial meltdowns.

Among the initiatives proposed by Barack Obama are the modernizing and upgrading of the nation’s dilapidated schools. “We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms,” Obama indicated in his broadcast.

Barack Obama told a meeting of state governors of the National Governors Association, concerned about their own budget deficits, that they will receive help from the incoming Obama administration. The news could not come too soon, as many state budgets are under terrific strain resulting from the global economic crisis.

President-elect Barack Obama urged state governors to assist with crafting an economic recovery plan. Obama has already indicated that a first priority once he is inaugurated as America’s 44^th president will be an economic stimulus program to jumpstart the U.S. economy. During the meeting of the National Governors Association, Barack Obama repeated his priority for a plan that will save or retain two and a half million jobs. The Obama plan would also provide tax cuts to the middle class

Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona, has been selected by President-elect Barack Obama to be his secretary of Homeland Security. If confirmed by the senate, Governor. Janet Napolitano will be the third secretary of the Homeland Security Department.

Governor Napolitano was a federal prosecutor and state attorney general before being twice elected governor of Arizona. As governor, Napolitano was involved in efforts aimed at curbing illegal immigration. Napolitano has also undertaken efforts aimed at limiting the effects of wildfires and severe flooding. Governor Napolitano cooperated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which comes under the jurisdiction homeland security.

In picking Napolitano, Barack Obama rounded out his selections for the incoming administration’s national security team. Among other selections, Obama also confirmed that Hillary Clinton will be his Secretary of State and Robert Gates will continue to head the Defense Department.